10 Reasons Why You Need To Respect The Great Khali
5. Heavyweight Champion Of The World
When Edge was forced to surrender his posts as Smackdown's top dog in July 2007 after a yet another injury, WWE attracted huge controversy by anointing Khali the World Heavyweight Champion following victory in an unannounced battle royal.
On a brand with Batista, The Undertaker and several other top names, it was seen as a woeful choice completely at odds with the type of performer the fanbase considered acceptable in the role. As is so often the case in professional wrestling, many loud voices rushed to judgment without first surveying the opportunities that lay ahead.
In winning the title, Khali's dominant size became a bigger threat to the entire roster overnight. It was one thing just to have to fight him, but quite another to take his title. Undertaker had been dominated in his efforts to fell the monster a year earlier (more on that later) and John Cena took the beating of his life just a month earlier before yet again defying the odds to sneak past the new titleholder in a Falls Count Anywhere match.
When Batista finally unseated Khali at September's Unforgiven pay-per-view, he did so by managing to sustain the fiercest of Khali's brutal assaults. It readied him for their powerful Punjabi Prison match a month later, and gave him new respect for physicality as he prepared to again wage war with 'The Deadman'.
The world's largest placeholder, Khali's stint with the gold kept it's prestige firmly in tact.